TAHITI : THE PLAYGROUND OF NATURE 



311 



customer is served the fish benches are 

 stripped, and the butchers, bakers, and 

 vegetable men have parted with more 

 than half their stock. In an hour the 

 market is almost deserted. 



The buyers have a great variety to 

 select from, there being, as 1 ; a rule, from 

 fifteen to twenty kinds of fruit, greens, 

 and tubers, and a dozen sorts of fish, 

 much of which is offered in palm-leaf 

 baskets. Mingled with bananas, coco- 

 nuts, pineapples, tree-melons, alligator- 

 pears, oranges, and limes are gigantic 

 yams, clusters of breadfruit, and piles of 

 taro stacked like soldiers' arms. 



THE KILT IS UNIVERSALLY POPULAR 



The market square is an excellent place 

 to study Tahitian dress. Of present-day 

 attire there is everything", from the kilt 

 to creased trousers, flashy hose, and flar- 

 ing waistcoats. In this island fashion 

 usually has few moods ; wherefore, in 

 every hamlet are the kilt and the "Mother 

 Hubbard.'' In the country the first is so 

 well liked that a large number of women 

 spread it over or under their dresses, and 

 men Avho spend a day away from home 

 in European garb don the prized cloth of 

 red, blue, or yellow as soon as they rejoin 

 their families. Often it and a shirt are 

 worn together. Sometimes the latter is 

 tucked, but more often it is not; and 

 though it may reach well below the knee, 

 like a nightgown, it is just as probable, 

 if the wearer be a boy, that it will barely 

 touch the hips. 



The most enjoyable way to see Tahiti 

 is to journey entirely around it. The 

 usual way of encircling it is by carriage 

 or automobile, except at the peninsula's 

 end, where a canoe is necessary. I ob- 

 tained a guide, Tairua, and walked prac- 

 tically all of the 120 miles. 



We began our travels together one 

 pleasant morning, with the home of my 

 guide's father-in-law, in the Papara dis- 

 trict, as our day's goal. 



Tairua wore a European suit and car- 

 ried on a stick slung across his shoulder 

 a bundle of clothing wrapped in a kilt. 

 As we were leaving Papeete, he yielded 

 to his love for music by stopping at a 

 Chinese store and buying a harmonica. 

 This he played at intervals all day. His 

 tribute to Apollo illustrated a national 



trait, for all Tahitians love music. They 

 delight in singing, and from ancient days 

 have drawn sounds from crude bamboo 

 and wooden instruments. Once, as in 

 Hawaii, they even employed the nose to 

 please the ear, the medium in that ca-<; 

 being a flute. Sometimes the performer 

 was accompanied with songs, but there 

 seemed to be only one tune, a singularity 

 that obtains to a large extent today. 



The favorite instruments now are the 

 accordion, harmonica, and jews'-harp. I 

 saw the first in all parts of the island. 

 In Papeete I frequently saw groups of 

 young persons of both sexes squatting 

 on lawn or street, wreathed with flower - 

 and accompanying an accordion with 

 voice or limb. The harmonica is highly 

 valued by the jovial bands that gather 

 around the rum bottles in saloons, where 

 its strains, combined with the excitation 

 resulting from the liquor, arouse the in- 

 temperate circle to wild enthusiasm and 

 boisterous chorus. 



Our way lay between coconut groves 

 and banana fields ; beside coral-littered 

 beach ; in the shade of the flowering 

 purau (wild hibiscus), and past the 

 lowly sensitive plant. 



In alarm at our tread, hundreds of land- 

 crabs ran in ungainly fashion to their 

 holes, some raising militant claws, others 

 bending all their energies toward flight. 

 Under our feet tiny ants foraged : in the 

 shallows of the sea the blue otuu fished 

 for its breakfast ; farther out brown fish- 

 ermen poised pronged spears from reef 

 or boat; to the right and to the left the 

 leisurely inmates of thatched hemes pre- 

 pared their breakfasts or sauntered about 

 with an air of luxurious ease. Both 

 young and old among them saluted us 

 with the national "Iorana!" and the curi- 

 ous stared at us with questioning eyes. 



SIGHTS TO GLADDEN THE EVE 



As we walked, there was much to see. 

 One moment it was the curling surf 

 thundering on the reef, or an inspiring 

 view of the toothed island of Moorea : 

 again it was flower and tree — the panda- 

 nus, the medicinal miro. or the dye-pro- 

 ducing eufa. On every hand the bread- 

 fruit shared yard and roadside with the 

 prolific mango ; over wave-washed shore 

 and high on breezy hill leaned the nut- 



